


An Icy Night

by Silvia_Phenora



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, M/M, Pining, Referenced Geralt/Renfri, To Be Continued, not a happy ending (yet)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22264681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvia_Phenora/pseuds/Silvia_Phenora
Summary: There are questions that keep Jaskier up at night.There are long lives, lived in fear of loving another.Geralt/Jaskier short angsty story.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Geraltskier Short Stories





	An Icy Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tyrianTyrant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyrianTyrant/gifts).

> Maybe not a one-shot. Prompt idea from ashesEternal.

Jaskier hadn’t come upstairs once all night.  
It was a full moon. That was convenient, since the candles lit in the tavern were poorly placed and barely provided enough light to walk down the stairs. Geralt didn’t need it, but the blue light scattered through the slats on the tavern windows put him more at ease as he descended. 

There wasn’t any reason for Geralt to worry. It didn’t matter to him if the bard wanted to spend his one night of rest composing songs. 

Except that it would definitely slow them down in the morning, and the morning after that, until Jaskier’s sleep schedule righted itself.  
At the pace they’d been traveling, they’d likely have to buy Jaskier his own horse and that was certainly not going to come out of Geralt’s pockets. If they couldn’t afford to pay for separate rooms tonight, they couldn’t afford Jaskier making such a stupid decision as pulling an all-nighter.

He reached the ground floor entirely silently, having already noted on the way up which stairs had creaks. The bar was devoid of any candles, as everyone had either left or gone to bed.

Geralt scanned the room and quickly located Jaskier’s form, slumped over a table. In one hand he was holding a bottle. Geralt rolled his eyes.  
He approached without bothering to be quiet anymore.  
“Geralt?” Jaskier lifted his head. “... That you?” 

He didn’t sound drunk, but his lute was nowhere to be seen. Geralt made an affirming noise, folding his arms. Jaskier swirled the bottle in his hands and remained uncharacteristically quiet.  
Ah, there was the lute, under the table. Geralt waited, until the silence stretched entirely longer than he had now grown used to. Just as it seemed he would have to break it, Jaskier spoke.

“You can go upstairs if you want to. I think I’ll just... stay here for a bit.” There was cheer in his voice that sounded entirely too forced.

Geralt grunted. “Why are you up?”  
“... Oh, I couldn’t sleep. Just... thinking. Yknow,” he huffed a laugh, “about things like, tomorrow.”  
Geralt saved his quips about Jaskier’s thought processes for another time.  
“I’m not waiting up then.” He turned to leave. Whatever Jaskier was dealing with, it didn’t need to involve him.

“Yeah.” There was silence, then a fidgeting noise as Jaskier turned around so that his back was to the Witcher. “Hey, Geralt?”

Geralt nearly reached the second step before Jaskier spoke again. He stifled a grimace and turned.

“What are Witcher’s lives like?” Jaskier asked. He was leaned against the table with his face to the ceiling now, bottle still in hand.  
“Hmm.”

“Forget it.”  
If this was how the night was going to be, Geralt was going to answer honestly. “We live on the move, constantly. Never stopping in one place for too long, never getting attached.”  
“You don’t usually bring people with you.”  
“No, I don’t.”  
“Because it’s too dangerous?” It didn’t sound like a question. Jaskier’s breathing was getting ragged.  
“Mm. Why are you asking?”  
“What about your life itself? How long have you got.”  
Geralt blew out a breath, shrugged, and looked around. “However long it takes for something or someone to kill us.” He offered.

“So...” It was almost too quiet to hear.  
“No. I’m not immortal, bard. What I am is long lived, assuming it doesn’t get ended. It’s much longer than any humans but not as long as elves.” Jaskier was silent. Geralt pulled up a seat beside him, opting to look at the wall instead of the bard. “Does that answer your questions?”

Jaskier blew out a breath. He nodded. It would have been almost imperceptible in the darkness, but Geralt had grown to know him well enough in the last months that he could sense his jaw twitching.  
Jaskier swallowed, and in a voice trembling with heavy emotion he whispered, “Have you ever gotten tired of spending it alone?”  
Geralt returned his gaze to the wall. There were answers in the stone masonry, or there should be.  
“Once.”

“Did you try it?” Their breaths held still for his response. Geralt shook his head and smiled wryly. “It didn’t work out.”  
“Ah.” Jaskier inhaled.  
“I tried to save her. She tried to kill me.”  
“Oh.”

“Mm.” Geralt pushed himself to his feet. “Is that all?”  
“Wait, Geralt-“ Jaskier turned to him. Somewhere in his eyes, just above high cheekbones, was a shine. It traced down to his rounded jaw, skinny but without hunger. “If ever you could- try it again. Would you?”

Geralt met his eyes, and shook his head slightly. “No.”  
The slightest of sounds escaped Jaskier from somewhere in his throat. Geralt turned away. “I wouldn’t. For their sake.”

“I think- thanks, I mean, thanks Geralt. Good night.” Jaskier stood upright. Geralt pretended to not watch. “Good night, Jaskier.”  
The stairs creaked as Jaskier ascended quickly, until the sound faded entirely. 

Geralt listened for the door of their room, and sat back down facing the door of the tavern. He stayed there as the moon set, and watched til the sun rose for any danger that might try to ascend the stairs.  
There was not anything physical to disturb the bard’s sleep that night.


End file.
